“SNOW!?”, she yelled as she looked at me with a toothy and somewhat inquisitive grin; as if she were not quite sure if she was correct in her assessment of the fluffy white stuff falling to the ground.
“Wow! It sure is, the first of the year!”
“Open the door Daddy?”
I slid open the big glass patio door and we stood with our heads poked out into the downfall of heavy snow like turtles from a giant shell.
The wonder emanating from my two year old girl, my Lily, was as tangible as the snow itself. She’s seen the snow before but to a one year old a snowy day is much like any other. To a two year seeing, really seeing the snow for the first time is a wondrous event. Tentatively she reached out to touch it, immediately recoiling with another giant grin and a giggle when a big flake hit her hand.
“”s cold daddy!”
I stuck my tongue out and tried to catch some with her following suit immediately after like a seasoned pro. We didn’t catch any but the conversation quickly turned anyhow.
“We build a snowman?!”
I explained to her that it was too dark and we would need more snow for that, but promised we would as soon as there was enough snow.
After some further discussion about the snow it was decided that we will build a snowman when we have enough snow, make it’s nose out of a carrot, and then eat his nose.
We stood there a couple of minutes longer, the silence broken by giggles and squirming to get both at and away from the snow. The whole while I was in awe of the pure joy and excitement she was experiencing from something many of us older folks grumble and cry about. At the same time I noticed that I was not grumbling and crying but rather experiencing pure joy and excitement from the snow through the proxy of this bright little pair of eyes.
I’ve heard people talk about experiencing the world for a second time through the eyes of a child; while never really skeptical about it, I never truly understood it until recently.
I love being a dad. It is the single greatest thing that has happened to me since my birth.
Let it snow, let it snow, let it SNOW!